Legal Help Desk

The transgender health care crisis is not only well-documented in national surveys in the last few years, but is revealed in story after story of transgender people who have been refused care by health care providers and refused medically-necessary coverage by the health insurance industry.

Today, the Supreme Court granted a motion to stay the freedom to marry for all Virginians achieved through a victory in Bostic v. Rainey. For now, same-sex couples like our clients Joanne Harris and Jessica Duff are once again denied the freedom to marry in Virginia and Christy Berghoff and Victoria Kidd’s marriage remains unrecognized where they live.

Lambda Legal and Morrison and Foerster LLP have filed suit against the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on behalf of the American Military Partner Association (“AMPA”) arguing that the denial of benefits to same-sex spouses of veterans living in states that refuse to recognize their marriages is in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

Today, Lambda Legal, the ACLU and ACLU of Virginia will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to deny the motion filed Thursday by Prince William County Clerk Michèle McQuigg seeking to stay the recent Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Schaefer v. Bostic striking down Virginia’s discriminatory marriage ban.

Today, Lambda Legal asked a federal court to compel the state of Arizona immediately to recognize the marriage of George Martinez and Fred McQuire, a gay couple from Green Valley who have been together for 45 years and were married last month in California after George was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer that has metastasized to his liver and was told that he only has months to live.